Flea, founding bassist of Los Angeles funk-rock staple Red Hot Chili Peppers, recently recalled his “feral” teenage years with best friend and bandmate Anthony Kiedis. He reflected on his “violent, chaotic” childhood in the 1970s, when his family moved from New York to L.A.
Speaking with musician and YouTuber Rick Beato, Flea described himself as a “shy, weird” kid, but admitted he became “just wild” after moving to the West Coast as a teen.
“I was in the street,” he said, “unwatched, getting into trouble, running around doing dumb, stupid f***ing crimes.” In 1976, Flea met Anthony Kiedis at Fairfax High School, and the two became inseparable.
On the subject of Kiedis, Flea also described their meeting in his 2019 memoir, Acid for the Children. “I’d found the perfect partner in crime, a guy like me, who just didn’t give a f*** about any kind of convention,” he wrote.
To Beato, Flea explained, “Anthony and I, when we were kids, we were up to so much wild stuff. We were just loose and gone…in Hollywood in the 70s. It was crazy.” Flea described both of their families as “low-income,” so neither had any money.
“[It] was like, ‘How are we going to get lunch today? What are we going to do?’” he said. But it turns out that their “feral” experience of their teenage years became beneficial when they started a band. “Because we were always so used to just trying to survive on the street, when it came time to have a band, we had…this grit,” Flea recalled.
Flea Reflects On How ‘Feral’ Teenage Years With Anthony Kiedis Benefitted RHCP
While the grit of being poor and let loose in Los Angeles benefited the Red Hot Chili Peppers as they gained popularity, the entire experience of 1970s L.A. also benefited the band musically. The initial lineup, formed in 1982, was Flea and Kiedis along with two high school friends, Hillel Slovak on guitar and Jack Irons on drums.
“We didn’t just listen to funk,” Flea said. “We listened to Ornette Coleman, we listened to the No New York scene in New York in the 80s, the Lounge Lizards and James Chance and all of that.”
Now, Red Hot Chili Peppers is known for their distinctly L.A.-style funk-rock, but their influences were varied, according to Flea. “And we loved Led Zeppelin and the mighty rock bands,” he added. “We went to go see The Who, and at the same time, we go see Jaco [Pastorius], we saw Weather Report and Miles [Davis]. We knew how to sneak in everywhere.”
On that note, Flea shared his best tip for enjoying live music as a teenager with no money. “I’m telling you, kids, you want to sneak into something, walk in backwards, they’ll never notice you,” he said. “Just walk in backwards. I’m telling you, it works.”
Photo by Gary Gershoff/Getty Images
The post Flea Recalls Being a ‘Feral’ Teenager With Anthony Kiedis Before Red Hot Chili Peppers Formation appeared first on VICE.
